Christopher David Airiau won the Story of Excellence Award in the Steampunk
chapter for
A BROKEN DOWN AUTOMATON SENSES ITS
SAVIORS
BAM: What were pen names you used in the Anthology?
Christopher: T. Christopher David and
David Christopher Urania.
BAM: Which chapters can readers find those stories?
Christopher: Alternate Reality and Apocalyptic.
BAM: Where are you located?
Christopher: Alsace, France
BAM: Where is your writing space?
Christopher: Standing desk in home office.
BAM: Who are some authors you keep returning to?
Christopher: Iain M. Banks, Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, Ursula K.
Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, Kim Stanley Robinson, George Saunders.
BAM: George Saunders? One of my creative writing teachers in the 2010s was obsessed with his work. Actually, I asked Saunders to be one of the judges for this anthology. Unfortunately, he never replied. Some other well-known authors luckily did. Okay, back to you. Who are some artists you like?
Christopher: Carly A-F, Paul Enami, Holly Jencka, Daniel Locke,
Patrick Loveland, Strega Wolf van den Berg, Brandon Yu.
BAM: I'll have to look some of them up. Thanks. What are some foods you like?
Christopher: Une baguette fraîche et chaude, lentilles vertes au
saucisses de Morteau, un vieux comté, the Gonzalez family taco recipe, Deep dish
pizza
BAM: For those who do not know, the first one is a type of sausage dish. The second is cheese. Tacos are tacos. The last one is the best kind of pizza on Earth. What about most writers' favorite momentary distraction, drinks?
Christopher: Des vins rouges de Bourgogne and IPA.
BAM: I trust someone in France when it comes to wine, so I'll have to try the first drink you mentioned. What about musical interests? Who do you like?
Christopher: Talking Heads, Janelle Monáe, Parliament, Hot Snakes,
Sweeps, Kamasi Washington, Waveshaper
BAM: What are some movies you like?
Christopher: Parasite, Au Poste !, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien,
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Memento, Star Trek.
BAM: A fellow Trekkie. Nice. Are there any places that inspire creativity from you?
Christopher: La taverne française, the “frisbee lawn” at l’UdS, Secret
Flatrock, SOMA, #mothership-game-night, the Lost Bay, on my bike with my
favorite co-pilot.
BAM: Cool. Speaking of co-pilots, do you have a
writer circle?
Christopher: I am currently participating in a ttrpg writing circle,
which includes six people over six timezones. Each three weeks, one person
submits a work, during which the other writers give feedback and discuss the
writing and game mechanics.
BAM: TTRPG, for readers unaware, means table-top role-playing game. In this context, you rotate stories. Fascinating. With so many people seeing your work, who do you write
to when you picture your reader. Your target audience.
Christopher: Depends on the piece. Often, I am writing for a
submission or on commission, so the audience is rather clearly defined in
advance.
BAM: What's your sidekick-writer drink, coffee or tea or
something else?
Christopher: Huge morning filter coffee, and sometimes some Earl Grey
in the afternoons.
BAM: Some writers have a message for the world. In some cases, they don't even realize this fact. For you, is there something
you passionately want the human race to stop doing, which, maybe even in a subtle way, you present to the reader in your stories?
Christopher: All forms of violence against one another and the planet.
BAM: Totally agree. Except that I think smokers should be punched in the face for poisoning babies, animals, and the planet. Kind of joking about the violence, kind of not. At any rate, in regard to your style, could you recommend to novice writers the best
way to write?
Christopher: Whatever works best for the writer. This is a process of
learning the craft that is individual to everyone. Always be wary of folks who
tell you they “know the way” to best do anything.
BAM: Makes sense. Hey, how do you relax after a long week of writing?
Christopher: HAHAAHAHAHA
BAM: Funny. Okay. What's your
greatest achievement in writing?
Christopher: My greatest achievement has yet to come! But to date,
probably my first full-length Mothership RPG adventure module, Bio-Drones &
Cryo-Clones.
BAM: Oh. Then, what got you into
writing?
Christopher: I’ve always loved making up stories. As the eldest child
of four, and frequently the oldest kid in the apartment complex, it sort of
became my “job” to make up the games and the stories that went with them. In
4th grade, we had a creative writing assignment, and I don’t think I ever
really quit writing weird sci-fi stuff since then.
BAM: In that case. Tell me some books
you read recently.
Christopher: The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones, The
Chronicles of Morgaine by C.J. Cherryh, Babel by R.F. Kuang, Classic Traveller
by Marc Miller, The Tide World of Mani by Joel Hines.
BAM: Well read. Do you play music, or watch anything, too?
Christopher: Instrumental-only music, picked based on vibes. Lots of
dark ambience and synthwave, recently.
BAM: Is anyone in your
family a writer?
Christopher: My ma wrote a book when she was in her early 20s.
BAM: Interesting. How about this question: What deceased or
living writer do you want to meet?
Christopher: Never meet your heroes, right?
BAM: Right. Although, I have a feeling Edgar Allan Poe and I would've been friends, as we share a lot of commonalities. We'd've probably complained to each other about our eyebag problem and made an eyebag club.
Christopher: I dunno. It probably would
have been grand to have a pint with Iain M. Banks.
BAM: Quite an award-winner you named. Banks won, for example, in 1991 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for The Bridge. Christopher, what's the
greatest writing award you hope to win?
Christopher: I try to focus on the work at hand rather than target
lofty goals.
BAM: I see. Who is the author you vehemently hate, and why?
Christopher: Hate is bad for your heart.
BAM: Makes sense. Are any of your
friends writers?
Christopher: My great friendships with Justin Tyler Chandler and
Jeremy Allan Hawkins have been vital for me to maintain focus on the craft.
Chandler has published short fiction, and written two unpublished novels, and
Hawkins has published several poetry chapbooks and many poems across the
literary sphere. They are both also musicians.
BAM: Great to have friends who understand your life. Are you in a writer's group or workshops?
Christopher: In addition to the current game writers workshop, I have
been part of the Indiana University Fiction Writer’s Workshop, a co-founder of
the Contemporary Anglophone Literature Collective, and founder of the
Strasbourg Science Fiction & Fantasty Writer’s Workshop.
BAM: Okay. Random question time. What were the most drafts
you've written for a story?
Christopher: CALCULATION ERROR: APPROACHING INFINITY.
BAM: Relatible. What are your main
distractors while writing?
Christopher: Everything. ADHD be hard, yo.
BAM: Yeah. Well, on editing, do you
edit alone, have a friend read your work, or do you hire a professional editor?
Christopher: Edit alone, have friends or a workshop read over stuff
when I can, and I’ve hired pro editors for my game releases.
BAM: What about writer's block? How do you overcome it?
Christopher: In most cases, my writer’s block is due to my ADHD
inhibiting me from starting. Details and sequencing become overwhelming, and I
lose sight of that line between what the character wants and what the story
needs.
BAM: Tell me more.
Christopher: The best way for me to overcome this
sort of writer’s block is to change the medium. I leave the computer, or even
the home office, and move my thoughts into notebook scribbles or at a café on
my markdown machine. These notes tend to be a conversation with myself, an
internal debate. I’m not just sitting still and trying to think, my ideas fight
each other until there’s a KO or common ground is found. It’s weird, I guess,
but it’s much easier to straighten out this mess in a combative manner.
BAM: Care to elaborate?
Christopher: Other times, I get tripped up with
large scale settings or fictional sequencing. This is the “worldbuilding” part
of speculative fiction. When the groups, planets, whatever get too big for my
brain, I spend some time sketching these places—by drawing them, building
thought clouds, or a timeline. Even though 99% of this writing never makes it
into a story, having a solid foundation makes sf stories sing.
BAM: Could you tell me
about how you organize writing in your life?
Christopher: I have a writing ritual. To start writing, I put on my writing
hoody. It’s well over a decade old, ragged, and I am forbidden from wearing it
outside the house. I pop on my cans, put my solar lamp, and perform guided
mindfulness meditation. Next, I write a page of positive affirmations and focus
goals, a step borrowed from Octavia Butler. Last, I pop on some non-vocal mood
music and open the file.
BAM: What do you mean?
Christopher: The extent of the ritual depends on
how difficult to the effort to start typing away has been. This process was
quite long in the beginning, but through practice I can achieve an adequate
level of mindfulness in about 5-10 minutes. Skipping this and the affirmations
is also quite common when I’m in a good writing mood.
BAM: Got it. Sticking to your guns.
Christopher: I’m lucky enough to have at least
three hours a day to work on my writing, which has mostly been for table-top
roleplaying games in the past year.
Biography:
Christopher David Airiau holds a
Master’s in English Literature from l’Université deStrasbourg, teaches English
in France, and designs tabletop role-playing games as 5Million Worlds Press.
Their fiction appears in Filmmakers Without Cameras, Unstamatic,and Dead Horse.
Find them at chrisairiau.com.
Published Works:
Unstamatic, “One Man and No City” and
“Torn from the Pages of a Used Android Catalogue: Phoenix”
Filmmakers without Cameras 3, “A
Terminal Orbit Homeward”
Dead Horse, “Practice Makes Perfect”
Weirdo Faves of 2023, assorted prose.
Social Media:
https://5mwpress.substack.com
https://chrisair.itch.io
https://www.chrisairiau.com
Twitter: @ChrisAiriau
Bluesky: @chrisair.bsky.social
IG: @5mwpress
fb: https://www.facebook.com/5MWPress/
